Strengthening community engagement in American foulbrood surveillance to determine antibiotic-resistant Paenibacillus larvae in British Columbia, Canada
This project has been sponsored by:
Principle Investigator
Dr. Muhammad Fahim Raza
PhD | Technician in Apicultural Research, Technology Transfer Program
Co-investigators
Dr. Nuria Morfin
PhD | Chair of the Technology Transfer Program, British Columbia Honey Producers Association; Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba
Dr. Paul Adams
PhD | Director, Applied Genomics Centre, and Faculty, Biology Department, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Dr. Mathias Schuetz
PhD | Faculty, Biology Department, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Objectives
American foulbrood (AFB) is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Paeninacillus larvae. This disease is highly infectious and is an ongoing threat to Canadian apiculture as it has caused severe damage to many colonies. The purpose of this study is to enhance British Columbian beekeepers’ preparedness to combat this disease.
The objectives of this study are to:
a) enhance outreach to the beekeeping community through extension channels to promote best management practices (BMP) for the prevention and control of AFB,
b) expand pooled, extracted honey sampling across economically important apiculture regions of BC to quantify Paenabacillus larvae spores using culture-based technique, and
c) determine antimicrobial resistance among P. larvae isolates from beekeeping operations in BC using quantitative minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assays.
Length of project
Proposed end date March 2027.
Figure 1. Common clinical signs of American foulbrood. Note. From Zabrodski et al. (2020).
References
Zabrodski, M. W., Wilson, G., Moshynskyy, I., Wentzell, A., Wood, S. C., Klein, C. D., Kozii, I. V., de Mattos, I. M., Epp, T., & Simko, E. (2020). Investigation of clinical outbreaks of American foulbrood in honey-bee operations in Saskatchewan. The Canadian Veterinary Journal, 61(10), 1055–1059. https://doi.org/10.4141/cvj-2020-0006